1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to airport light installations.
2. Related Art and Prior Art Statement
Modern airports incorporate specialized lighting systems including, for instance, runway touchdown zone lighting systems, runway centerline lighting systems, taxiway centerline lighting systems, and edge lighting systems. Edge lighting systems are important because they help define runways and taxiways and inhibit pilots from inadvertently driving their airplanes off the designated runway and taxiway areas.
Typical edge light installations incorporate a light fixture assembly that is attached to a container embedded into the ground. Exemplary edge light fixtures include elevated light fixtures and bidirectional inset light fixtures. Inset light fixtures are low-profile light fixtures, and are used where it is impracticable to use elevated light fixtures.
Elevated light fixtures and inset light fixtures have different structural geometries and require their own specialized mounting containers. In fact, the geometries of the mounting containers for elevated light fixtures and inset light fixtures are considerably different from one another. As a result, replacing elevated light fixtures with inset light fixtures, and vice versa, is time consuming and expensive because it requires removal and replacement of the containers, which thus necessitates certain new and useful improvements in the art.